Polyhydric sterones are a group of important compounds that are widely naturally occurred. Many polyhydric sterones isolated from marine organisms and terrestrial plants have important physiological functions such as antineoplastic and immunity enhancement effects. For example, ecdysterones and brassinosteroids are growth-promoting compounds for plants.
However, naturally occurring polyhydric sterones are contained in plants at an extremely low level, the purification procedures of which are thus complicated and time-consuming. In addition, due to structural complexities for example relatively longer and complicated side chains, most compounds of this group are not synthesizable, which restricts their applications. It will be of great significance with respect to the ranges of applications if those naturally occurring compounds are structurally optimized such that they substantially maintain inherent pharmaceutical properties, while having simplified structures to facilitate synthesis.